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TUTORIAL: live install with changes, swap and data partitions

This question or a question related to part of this gets asked so many times, but people seem unable to find it where I originally posted it.

THIS TUTORIAL IS FOR BT2 BUT CAN EASILY BE ADAPTED FOR BT3

Most of this is aimed at a USB HDD but it should be obvious from this how to adapt it for a USB pendrive, stick, flash drive or whatever else you like to call them.

Ok so this is how I do a live install with changes, swap and data partitions.

You will need
bt2final.iso md5 verified
WinRAR any recentish version will work (free trial version is ok too)
USB HDD size of your choice
or a USB STICK size depending on how many of these features you want (1GB MIN for the basic live or 2GB MIN for live with changes)

In windows right click my computer and select manage and select disk management. (for a USB STICK you will have to do this in QTparted)
select you USB drive and delete any partitions.

create a new Primary Partition 1-1.5 GB and format it FAT32 this extra space allows you add modules if you want to. (I like to make it 1.5GB as I like modules) I do this in windows as it seems to work better, but for USB sticks this has to be done in qtparted.

Open the bt2final.iso in WinRAR (yes it can open iso files) and extract the iso to the new partition, you could also copy them from the cd but this metod works best for me.

safe eject the USB HDD or Stick.

Boot into Backtrack from the cd, login and startx

Insert the USB HDD

Open qtparted select you USB and create a 1GB swap primary partition (whatever size you like)

Create a ext2 primary partition (I use 5GB you could use more or less) this is for the changes (Take note of what this drive is referenced as sda3 in my case but could be sdb3 etc)

Create a FAT32 or ext2 primary partition for the rest of the disk (this is where you store your data) I use FAT32 so as I can add or remove files from or to it on any computer with USB (you will only be able to access this partition on a HDD install, and not on a USB stick)

So now you should have 4 primary partitions
1 FAT32
2 SWAP
3 ext2
4 FAT32 or ext2

Partition 1 and partition 4 (if FAT32) will need to be assigned drive letters in windows for you to be able to access them.

Commit the changes, close qtparted and reboot into windows

<EDIT by ziplock> in the ext2 partition, create an empty folder named Changes </edit>

These next steps could be done in BT but I have found the last step to be unreliable.

navigate to the boot folder on the USB HDD or USB stick and right click bootinst.bat and select edit. This opens the file in notepad for editing

BEFORE YOU DO THE NEXT STEP MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN YOUR USB DRIVE AS WE HAVE FORCED THE INSTALLER TO WRITE TO THE MBR IF YOU ARE NOT IN THE USB DRIVE YOU WILL SCREW UP YOUR SYSTEM.
CONSIDER THIS YOUR WARNING NOT TO DO THIS IF YOU ARE UNSURE
I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU MESS THINGS UP

Ok so you are feeling brave... good

type

Code:

bootinst.bat

and follow the instructions making sure that it has got the drive letter correct.

reboot making sure to setup your bios to boot from the USB or EXTERNAL DRIVE or REMOVABLE DRIVE as the first boot device.

Once you have booted into BT make sure to turn the swap partition on.
This shouldn't be necessary, but do it just in case.
The second command will probably tell you that it is in use or busy, but you can ignore that as it is only telling you that BT has already worked it out and is using it.

Code:

mkswap /dev/sda2
swapon /dev/sda2

THAT'S IT

There you go, the best install option in my opinion. all the benefits of a live install (easy use of modules) all the benefits of a disk swap space, all the benefits of a full install (changes saved automatically) and a partition to store data on.
Plus if you do manage to mess your install up, just delete the folders in the changes partition and you are back to a virgin install. And if you think that installing some piece of software or making some changes to your install may cause a problem, you can make a copy of those same two folders, as a backup just in case.

This is the method I use all the time, and as far as I am concerned the best way of installing BT

Sorry this is a bit rough and ready, it was only written very quickly.

GOOD LUCK and enjoy

As a side note if you need to use a bootcode like irqpoll or acpi=off etc you can put it after the append mentioned earlier, you can also use multiple bootcodes if needed by putting a space between them.

maybe one time i will come to london make some shopping(im in south brittany, not so far.....)there 's a big tatto convention in london maybe i will go to the next one so if im in england i hope we can drink a beer togather BP...